Willie Countryman

Willie “Wootie” Countryman, 32, a Black Army veteran and truck driver, was shot and killed in his own backyard in Dawson just after 1:30 a.m. on May 25, 1958. Dawson Police officers Weyman Cherry and Robert Hancock said they had entered Countryman's yard to investigate a noise, and claimed Countryman attacked Cherry with a knife; Cherry shot him in the stomach, and he died at the hospital. Countryman's girlfriend, who had been talking with him moments before, and other family and friends disputed the officers' account at every point. A coroner's inquest the next day acquitted Cherry, ruling he had acted in self-defense. It was Cherry's second fatal or near-fatal use of force against a Black resident within a matter of weeks — he had fatally beaten another Black man, James Brazier, about a month earlier, and would go on to serve as Dawson's police chief for a decade afterward. Terrified Black residents organized under the name “Law, Justice, Order” and sent an urgent plea for outside help, writing, “We can't hold these people much longer.” The FBI investigated but found no living subjects by the time of a later federal review, and the case was formally closed in 2009.

Dawson, GA · Terrell County

• 1958: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• Victim identity, background, and the May 25, 1958 date and circumstances, per the DOJ's public case file, the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory University, and PBS FRONTLINE's “Un(re)solved” case summary.
• A coroner's inquest acquitted Officer Weyman Cherry the day after the shooting, ruling it self-defense; the same officer had fatally beaten another Black man about a month earlier, per the same sources.

• No one was ever criminally held accountable for Countryman's death.
• Countryman's girlfriend and other community members directly disputed the officers' account of the confrontation, and that conflict was never resolved through any trial.

• Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, Emory University — case summary
• PBS FRONTLINE Un(re)solved — case summary
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs